No hattrick for Chong Wei as Lin Dan and China rule Seoul

World No. 1 Lee Chong Wei failed to make it a hattrick of titles in January as China’s Lin Dan emerged victorious in the VICTOR Korea Open Superseries Premier final on Sunday, to give China four titles in the first OSIM BWF World Superseries Premier tournament.

Chong Wei won the VICTOR BWF Super Series Finals in Chinese Taipei early this year before winning last week’s PROTON Malaysia Open Superseries last week.

Lin Dan’s 21-19, 14-21, 21-16 victory was his 13th Superseries title, three behind his Malaysian rival, who also lost the Olympic and Asian Games finals to his Chinese rival.

China also won three other titles – women’s singles and doubles and mixed doubles. The only crown to escape their clutches was the men’s doubles which went to local favourites Jung Jae Sung-Lee Yong Dae. China also won four titles in Kuala Lumpur last week.

Lin Dan started on his favourite side of the court where the draught was to his back. Having recovered from an abdominal injury which forced him out of the PROTON Malaysia Open Superseries quarter-final last week, the former world champion took control of a tight first game.

He led his arch rival from the start but there was nothing separating them up to the half game interval where Lin Dan led 11-9.

It was only when the Malaysian won three consecutive points at 10-12 that he managed to take the lead for the first time. Lin Dan roared back to go back into the lead only for Chong Wei to get his nose in front for the second time at 15-14.

Once again Lin Dan came back to go in front at 17-15 but Chong Wei took the next three points to go back in front 18-17. That was the signal for the Olympic champion to up the tempo and he won four of the next five points to maintain his amazing record of winning 93% of games when he was ahead at the interval.

Chong Wei started the brighter of the two in the second game and raced from 1-1 to 5-1 to take a significant lead.

It was a lead he never looked like giving up, despite the best efforts of Lin Dan. Chong Wei went into the mid-game interval 11-6 up with some exquisite shot making which had the spectators gasping in amazement.

Lin Dan managed to reduce the deficit to 15-13 but that was the closest he came as Chong Wei closed out the match 21-14. It was the third time Lin Dan has dropped a game in this tournament – one each to Taufik Hidayat and Simon Santoso – with all three defeats coming when he was facing the draught.

Just as the opening two games, the decider was incredibly tight with the players never more than two points in front of each other.

Chong Wei led all the way until 10-9 when a sudden injection of pace from Lin Dan saw take the next two points to go into the mid-game interval 11-9 ahead.

Lin Dan tried to force the pace after the change over but Chong Wei showed great defensive skills to not Lin Dan to pull away.

The Malaysian also began to assert himself more on the game with some delightful smashes which caught his opponent off guard several times.

However, Lin Dan was not to be denied as he continued his dominance over Chong Wei to win 21-16 for his 15th victory over the Malaysian in 22 ranking tournaments.